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| Alban Low, Weston Street, London Bridge, UK (#unsettledgallery No.1) |
Small World Futures is a collection of 38 miniature sculptures
depicting what life could look like in years to come. Each of these
small artworks will be placed in public spaces (#unsettledgallery)
around London Bridge. Every day throughout February we will be
featuring one of these worlds here on the website. A writer will also
use the world as inspiration to create something new and fresh, their
words describing the shape of a new world.
Today we discover the Small World Future of....Alban Low
The year is 2101
Wheeze
It started with The Burning Of The Tower. A new way of being
seemed possible. They told us they were sorry. Many of them meant it.
They told us, ‘Change Will Happen’.
Our external world had always been Kindness v Money. And Money had
always won. Because within each of us the battle is between Need and
Desire. And Desire had always won. Night is always stronger than Day.
Or was.
After The Burning Of The Tower, for a while we were breathing loud
and wheezy, but we were breathing with possibility.
They tried at first to close the gaps, patch up the wounds, cover
our mouths, fill the lung-holes with bullshit and Strictly and
post-post-truth and my-identity-is-more-important-than-yours and
splitting and spitting and hate.
Yet they could never fool us completely. And as we began to learn
how to ignore them, we began to rebuild. First, the government went.
Then all governments went. Then we set about looking at our
darknesses, holding them out to others, holding them *for* others.
The cladding was stripped away. We could be who we were, hiding
neither our black nor our white.
Soon, we were raw and hurt and joyous and unbound. Many died. A
God came, a Saviour. Then another and another. Some fell under their
spell. But others - the majority - started to regain their curiosity,
their love of truth, their open-aired doubt, their willingness to
say, ‘I don’t know.’
Corporations began to slice themselves into small pieces, to turn
towards communities, to sink themselves gently back into the people.
And the people were happy. Most of them. Or - rather - most people
were accepting, more whole, more aware, no longer striving for
happiness or avoidant of pain. The new century, we agreed, would be a
great one.
And then - in 2101 - came The Second Burning Of The Tower.
Kevin Acott
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| Alban Low |
You can find Alban Low's Small World Future on the concrete barriers where Weston Street meets St Thomas Street (London
Bridge) at #unsettledgallery No.1. If you can find it then you can
take it home, or perhaps you will leave it for someone else to
discover.
Alban Low is involved in many creative
projects, these include album artwork, publishing chapbooks, making
films, maps, conceptual exhibitions, live performance and good old
drawing. He is artist-in-residence at the School of Nursing, Faculty
of Health, Social Care and Education at Kingston University and St
George's University of London. Low spends his evenings in the
jazz clubs of London where he captures the exhilaration of live
performances in his sketchbook. On Wednesday evenings he sketches the
performers on the radio show A World in London at Resonance FM. He is
about to open an exhibition of these drawings at the Yehudi Menuhin
Concert Hall on the 14th February 2018.
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| Kevin Acott |
Kevin Acott is a London-based model, cult singer and poet. He
divides his creative time between writing, photography and
collaborative projects. His stories and poems can be found on the
websites Sad Paradise, Londonist, Smoke: A London Peculiar
and Ink, Sweat And Tears. In 2017 he dedicated six months to
travelling and writing. Starting in North Carolina (USA) he
eventually ended his adventures in Limoux, France. Along the way
Acott spent a month as writer-in-residence in Qaqortoq (Greenland)
where he wrote several short stories. He has released several books
with publisher Sampson Low and is currently working toward a one-man
show at this year's Crouch End Festival in June 2018.
www.kevinacott.com
